It all began a few weeks ago when Jorge Valdivia, the Vice President of the Association for Latino Men in Chicago/ALMA, sent a message to me with a subject that read "Frida Fascination."
I was shocked! I mean, everybody certainly knows ABBA but nobody that I know truly adores ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, better known as Frida, for her solo work. And I guess I am specifically talking about her 1982 album "Something's Going On" which was produced by the then-great Phil Collins immediately following his first successful bid as a solo artist with 1981's "Face Value" (also a great album). Both albums document the disintegration of each artist's marriages and they also share one song, the beautiful "If Leaving Me is Easy." Collins also provided back-up vocals and drums for several tracks on the Frida album. I recommend it highly.
Anyway, so I'm about to write to Jorge to tell him that I can't believe that he also loves Frida and the moment I open the message I just know my Latino cred has just been shot to hell - maybe forever. Jorge, of course, was sending a note about a successful showing of Mexican artist Frida Khalo paintings or some sort of retrospective, NOT the other Frida. OMG!
The first to react was, well, Jorge himself who said he was ashamed and that I should really consider enrolling in a "Latin American icons 101" class.
Because I needed understanding and support I reached out to others and, well, I got no such thing. Pedro Julio Serrano from New York, Monica Taher from Los Angeles and Lorenzo Herrera y Solano from Austin engaged in cross-country cyberterrorism and plastered images of Frida Khalo on my MySpace page (hm, my MySpace page disappeared this weekend by the way, what's up with that?). So much for friendship.
So, like, am I still Latino?
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